


All the Gift I Need

by texastoasted



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 05:34:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17843441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/texastoasted/pseuds/texastoasted
Summary: Engineer gets injured on the battlefield and Soldier comes to his rescue. A short Valentine's day fic for @heavensong on tumblr who won my prompt submission contest!





	All the Gift I Need

    Dell was used to seeing hurt. Hell, his dispenser was a practical field hospital in a toolbox. A fair share of limping mercenaries came by throughout every battle, spitting blood and teeth and always that sigh of relief when the healing rays sank into them. Dell had taken to keeping a rag around for wiping the top of the dispenser off that seemed permanently spattered with fluids.

His latest satisfied customer was Medic, leaning heavily on the box while a hole in his side was knitted up, neat as you please. The other mercenary pushed up his glasses with the edge of his bonesaw and made eye contact with Dell, shaking his head in a wordless acknowledgement of being up shit creek.

    “How are things at the front?” Dell asked, keeping half an eye on his sentry. Things had been quiet for a while, and there were less folks around to keep extra watch on his back. He could almost smell that telltale shimmer in the air. Imported cigarettes, it smelled like. And lies.

    “They are keeping it locked down tightly.” Medic took a massive breath and tentatively straightened his spine, wincing for a pain that thankfully did not descend upon him like an angelic messenger. “But it would be the perfect time for someone to flank. I might send Herr Demo or Pyro back. Keep your eyes open.”

    Dell nodded. “Will do, doc.”

    Medic clicked his heels together and then with a wave of his fingers was jogging back across the battlefield, the tails of his coat fluttering behind him like birds’ wings. Dell did not much envy the injury any of the mercenaries pushing on the frontline. No matter how long it had been since they had begun doing this, respawn still made all of them a little queasy. It had been a busy morning, earlier, where they had gotten backed up against the goddamn wall. The middle and second to last point on their side were taken sooner than he could drain a glass of iced tea, and they were fighting like dogs to keep the last one blue. Somehow, they’d turned it around, and he could stop ducking behind his sentry so fast that it made his back protest. Dell was thankful for the silence. As soon as they got the middle back, he’d push up and settle by his teleporter. The enemy still hadn’t found it yet, but hey, he wasn’t complaining.

    Dell waited. There was no Pyro or Demo that was meandering around watching the flanks. But, Dell supposed, they weren’t contractually obligated to say hello. They might be tied down. He waited some more.

    The only thing that broke the monotony of counting the time in between the beeps of his sentry was a shrill sound from his PDA. The REDs found his exit teleporter, then. Dell gritted his teeth and set about putting up a new one. He felt exposed leaving the nest, always, even though there was no one around. He was able to stash it in some bushes that was about midway from his position and the middle point. Losing a little ground, but it would be fine. Dell retreated to his nest as soon as possible and watched its progress from afar, unfurling like some awakening creature.

    A far-off explosion. Nothing to worry about, but his fingers tightened automatically around the barrel of his shotgun. Another one, closer. Dell jerked his head from side to side. He was still alone, no one having popped out of the woodwork on either side. He’d barely been set up here for ten minutes, but already, it sounded like RED was pushing back. Lord, they were in for some trouble.

    His sentry beeped in warning. Dell swiveled to the second-floor window across from his position. A head popped out, and then a torso, and then a red sticky bomb launched itself out of a weapon aimed at him and landed almost comically on top of his dispenser. His sentry was already firing, and his heart jumping in his throat, several bullets pummeled the enemy Demoman back inside the building. Dell dove a respectable distance away from the bomb before he shot it to ribbons. He watched the window for what felt like an eternity.

    As soon as he lowered his guard there were bombs arcing across the sky as if the enemy somehow was watching him. The sentry finished him off, the man’s body falling out of the window and leaving an impressive blood streak down the wall before he finally collapsed in a heap. Dell dove for a second time out of the way, but he knew, rationally, that that was it.  _ Well _ , he thought,  _ hope respawn’s fast today. _

    Dell opened his eyes. The blue sky in his vision was blurry.  _ Still alive, then _ . He patted himself down, quickly. Nothing but dirt and shrapnel on him. Some cuts on his arms and legs, but he’d just been thrown by the blast and managed to keep his life. The hands patting his overalls made no sound. His eyebrows set in a line as he snapped his ungloved hand by his ears. Nothing. It had gone and made him deaf. Could he make it back to respawn for a health kit? He was unsure, with the way he was leaning to the side like he was relying on a cane. Medic was most likely too far away to hear him. Lord, it felt like he was going to hurl.

    There was a rumbling in the ground that he could feel through his legs, and with some shock, Dell looked around wildly. It was their Soldier, almost so spattered with red that he looked like an enemy, throwing his rocket launcher to the ground and coming at him in a way that looked like Dell’s neck was about to be snapped. Leave it to him to appear out of nowhere, sailing out of the sky with his boots still smoking.

    He could see that Soldier was mouthing words, and let himself be pulled up from the ground to his feet. His vision threatened to go dark.

    “I’m fine,” he said, probably much too loudly. “Just my hearing.”

    That earned him a robust slap on the back. “Dispenser,” Dell tried to say, and then his eyes settled on the pile of shrapnel. _ Damn it. Got blown to smithereens. Used the last of my metal on that teleporter. _

    The rim of Soldier’s helmet swung as he hoisted Dell’s arm over his shoulders and took up a brief pace. Dell smiled to himself. He didn’t even try to protest that he was  _ fine _ except for his hearing, he knew that Jane wouldn’t let him go without a proper escort back to respawn. It wasn’t too far, anyway. A glimpse of a blue eye was caught from beneath the helmet, watching him in a touching expression of concern. He could smell, at least, sweat and that firing-rockets odor of war on Soldier, something that was as constant as the earsplitting volume of his voice. If Dell could hear him, he was probably going on about how he was going to add the enemy’s heads to his collection in Dell’s honor. It made the Texan smile. Out here, he had learned not to take it for granted if someone was looking out for you.

    They were back at respawn soon enough, and Soldier deposited him on a bench, promptly taking himself to the medical cabinet and bringing back a first aid kit. He crouched, working open the latch. Dell started when he heard it click. It sounded far away, but it was something.

    “I think it’s coming back.”

    “...still bleeding.” he caught the end of that one, Soldier’s resilient tone working its way into his eardrums. Dell let Soldier wipe his face. The other mercenary’s fingers lingered on his cheek, where Dell had missed a spot shaving that morning. He hadn’t noticed the blood running down his neck, and it felt nice to rest for a moment, let his lungs fill with air out of immediate danger.

    “What are you looking at?” Soldier asked him, gruffly, balling up used tissue.

    “Just the calendar, over there.” Dell said, in what was still probably a holler. “Funny. I didn’t notice all this past week, but today’s Valentine’s Day.”

    Soldier’s hands stilled on the first aid kit. “Is that so, private?”

    “Yeah.”

    “I did not get you anything.”

    Dell’s eyebrows shot up his forehead, and he made an effort to take Soldier’s hand, although it caused a pain in his side that was something fierce.

    “Hell, I forgot too! Don’t worry about no silly gift. You’re being sweet enough on me right now. You’re all the gift I need.”

    Soldier’s cheeks reddened under the shadow cast by his helmet, and his lip twitched the way it did when he was trying not to smile. 

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
